


One door closes

by cryleigh



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), F/M, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, this is not a happy shippy fic be warned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-09
Updated: 2019-03-09
Packaged: 2019-11-14 06:46:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18047573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cryleigh/pseuds/cryleigh
Summary: Keito and Wataru realize that perhaps they have more in common than they thought when they are forced to cooperate once again for Eichi's sake. Unfortunately, it becomes apparent neither of them will reach the happy ending they had dreamt of back in the days of their youth.





	One door closes

**Author's Note:**

> I realize this is a weird concept for a fic. Thank you for giving it a chance.
> 
> My twitter is @cryleighart if ya wanna yell my way

He still stuck out like a sore thumb, Keito reflected as he pulled over to the pick-up lane. He wasn’t sure whether that comforted him or not, considering how much everything else had changed.

Wataru started waving at him excitedly — like an idiot, Keito thought — as soon as he saw him. He was overdressed for the spring weather, wearing a stylish-looking coat and a scarf bundled around his neck. He still wore his hair long, although it was piled atop his head in a messy bun at the moment — likely to keep it out of the way as he travelled. He rushed up to the car as Keito slowed to a stop and rolled down the passenger’s side window.

“Keito!!” Wataru greeted loudly, bending down to look at him through the window. “How wonderful it is to see you again, my friend! Truly amazing~”

Keito closed his eyes and leaned back against the seat, already realizing just how unprepared he was to spend the entire week with this walking headache. “Just put your shit in the back, alright?”

“Mm hmm~!” Wataru hummed cheerfully and Keito rolled the window back up as he heard Wataru pull open the trunk and haul his luggage into the back. Keito could hear him humming something to himself as he did so, and reflected that he’d forgotten just how constant his volume was. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose as he sighed again. What had he gotten himself into?

The trunk shut loudly and a few moments later the passenger-side door opened, Wataru gracefully climbing inside. Not a moment too soon, he started speaking again.

“Keito, it really has been such a long time hasn’t it? How many moons have traversed the sky above us since we’ve last seen each other, hmm? Why, it feels like forever — at least another lifetime perhaps?” He lifted a hand to his chest and closed his eyes, looking wistful. When he looked over at Keito again, his eyes were practically sparkling. “I’m certain you haven’t forgotten but I must always be prepared to remind just in case — it is I, your Hibiki Wa-”

Keito interrupted his stream of rhetorical metaphors and ridiculous introductions by tossing a cellphone into his lap. “Make yourself useful and navigate.”

Wataru looked surprised enough to actually stop and process this. He picked up the phone to where it was open to the main screen and tapped the maps app, letting it load. There was an address preloaded into the app, which Wataru squinted at for a moment in confusion. Keito savoured even this second of quiet.

“Navigate?” Wataru finally repeated. “Are we not going back to your family’s house?”

Keito shook his head slowly, opting to look over his shoulder as he pulled back onto the road instead of responding right away. “No. I don’t want to be a bother to them, even if they are in the same area. I figured it was easier to just get a hotel. It’s closer anyway.”

Wataru nodded thoughtfully. “I see, I see. How very strategic — just as one would expect from our Hasumi Keito.”

Keito rolled his eyes, taking another look around as he exited the terminal pull-in and back onto the main road. Wataru took a moment to unwind his scarf and let out his hair. It cascaded down his shoulders, somehow still managing to look elegant even though it fell in uneven waves — he must have had it up for a long time.

“How was your flight?” Keito asked, despite himself. As annoying as his driving partner was, it truly had been years since he’d last seen him, and he couldn’t help but be curious. “Where were you flying from, anyway?”

Wataru gave an exaggerated sigh. “Travelling like this is horrible, Keito. All of the layovers, all of the security checks. I was held at security for almost an hour because those dreadful sensors kept going off…”

Keito scoffed. “Let me guess — you had a bunch of coins hidden up your sleeves and the agents weren’t impressed by you pulling them out from behind their ears?”

Wataru made a disgruntled sound of distress. “They almost took my doves away, Keito! Even though my dears would never hurt anyone!”

“Those are the rules, Wataru.”

He made a frustrated growl and pouted. “Terrible! It’s oppressive!” he exclaimed indignantly, crossing his arms and leaning back. “I wish I could have just taken my balloon…”

Keito thought better than to ask why Wataru still had the damn thing — but that just opened up a whole other world of questions regarding why Wataru had a hot air balloon in the first place. 

“You didn’t answer my other question,” he prompted as he turned on his signal to change lanes. Wataru looked up, blinking as he fought to remember.

“Oh~ That’s right. I was coming from England this time. The troupe I’m working with right now just finished a show there last week. Hmm mmm, but I don’t like the director much, so I’m thinking I might quit.” He hummed thoughtfully, looking out the window at the scenery passing by. “Maybe I’ll go back to France this time? That would certainly bring back memories~”

Keito glanced sideways at him. He was smiling easily as he watched the city outskirts give way to countryside. He didn’t look all that different, considering the time that had passed. His face looked more mature and his hair was a bit darker than he remembered, but beyond that he could have just walked out of graduation. Keito supposed that Wataru had always been one to preen himself to an offensive extent — perhaps it had actually paid off after all of this time.

“You’re as carefree as ever,” Keito commented simply. Wataru turned to him, smiling impishly.

“And you, Keito? Are you as serious and nitpicky as before?” he asked teasingly.

“ _I’m_ driving the car, Wataru.” Keito responded immediately in a low warning tone. Wataru laughed loudly.

“I’m joking, I’m joking~” He reassured him, clapping a hand on Keito’s shoulder and making him jump slightly in surprise. “I was going to say, your hair is different! How cool~”

Keito glared ahead, trying to focus on the road rather than the distraction as his side. “You’re mocking me.”

Wataru gasped, a hand flying to his mouth. “Me?” He lowered the hand again, his laugh ringing pure and cheerful. “What are you doing now though?” He continued seriously, although his eyes still twinkled playfully. “You went to a big fancy university didn’t you?”

“I did,” Keito responded slowly. He really didn’t want to talk about his life right now, especially compared to the easy-going, successful career it sounded like Wataru had made for himself. “Five years and tens of thousands of yen for a scrap of paper. I’m working at head office for a technology research company, but I’ll probably end up inheriting my parent’s shrine sooner or later.”

Wataru took this in surprisingly quietly, looking thoughtfully out the window at the road ahead. It seemed even he’d come to recognize at least some degree of sympathy and human decency over the years, Keito thought bitterly. But when the silence continued for a few minutes longer, Keito wondered if something was wrong.

“They say when one door closes, another opens,” Wataru said finally with a bit of a solemn tone. His gaze was focused forward, his eyebrows furrowed a bit. Keito had the distinct feeling he was not talking about Keito’s future, or about Keito at all. In fact, Keito thought he knew very well what he was referring to, and had known it would come up eventually.

He had just hoped it wouldn’t be quite this soon. And not in a car on the highway where there was nowhere to escape to.

Keito took a deep breath. He could just ignore it, let it pass over until another topic of conversation took over. But they couldn’t avoid it for the entire week, couldn’t run circles around each other and smile like nothing was wrong.

Perhaps this wasn’t the optimal time or place, but it was stupid not to take the chance when it presented itself.

If nothing else, Keito had at least learned that.

“You’re talking about Eichi, then?” he asked, his voice sounding more steady than he felt, gripping the steering wheel tightly.

Wataru didn’t reply.

Keito’s navigation app chirped up, warning them to keep right to stay on the road. Still, the silence persisted as Wataru dropped his eyes from the road.

“Did you know?” Wataru asked finally. He was wringing his hands in his lap, his gaze focused intently on his twisting fingers. 

“Not until I got the invitation,” Keito answered, flicking his signal light on once again to get over to the right.

Wataru laughed quietly. It sounded forced.

“I had thought Eichi and I were closer than that.” He said sadly. “That he would tell me about this sort of thing.”

Keito shrugged. “We all live different lives now. It’s only natural that we would drift apart. That we wouldn’t talk as much anymore. We should be glad we were even invited.”

Wataru looked up at him in shock. Keito refused to meet his eyes. “You’re lying.” He accused, sounding hurt. Keito couldn’t understand why — it wasn’t _him_ who had created this situation. “I know you feel the same way. After everything you did for him back then. And when you were in university together…”

“It doesn’t matter what happened back then.” Keito said firmly.

Wataru fell silent again. He had started running his fingers through his hair as he gazed out the window again. Keito supposed he did feel bad for him. He hadn’t even been in the country when they had gotten the news: that Eichi was getting married — not simply engaged, but _married_ — to a woman neither of them had ever been introduced to. Keito had at least been around to see the distance growing between the two of them. He’d noticed it even while they attended classes together. University was a new exciting place and Eichi had thrown himself into it full-throttle, as he tended to do. It was natural that he was drawn to new, stimulating experiences. Just as it was natural that he left three years later when he’d grown bored with it. 

But it had opened a new world of possibilities to him — so many more people than those that he been forced to be around constantly at Yumenosaki. So many more places to see, so many more things to do.

It was natural that Keito would start to fade into the background. 

And it was natural that Wataru, who was exploring the other side of the world on his own whims would also be forgotten in the shifting tides of change. The only difference was that Wataru had always intended to come back — to return right to where he’d left off, expecting that nothing would have changed.

It must have been a shock to find everyone had moved on without him.

“I always said I would be his fool until the end,” Wataru said finally, interrupting Keito from his thoughts. “But I supposed I never thought I would actually feel this foolish when it came.”

He leaned back, looking up at the blank car roof. “We’re both a pair of fools, it seems,” he concluded.

Keito simply nodded in agreement. It was the best way to describe the two of them, who had devoted themselves wholeheartedly to a man who had enjoyed their company in the moment. Somehow they had deluded themselves that they were different, that they were more. That they were exactly what he needed.

What foolish, childish thoughts, Keito reflected. To believe they could be the best for someone they had never even fully understood. How foolish indeed to expect him to bare himself to them — to devote himself to them — when they had never even had the courage to tell him how they really felt in the first place.

They deserved this, really. For being so naïve.

Wataru sighed deeply, closing his eyes. “At the very least I can be at his side at the final moments of this dream I had,” he said. The words were terrible and dramatic, but Keito thought he sounded genuinely heartbroken.

He couldn’t help but frown at his statement though. _At his side?_ “Are you his best man?” He asked incredulously.

“Mm hmm~” Wataru hummed affirmatively, his eyes still closed.

Keito sighed heavily, adjusting his glasses again. “How incorrigible. That stupid man.”

Wataru tilted his head and opened his eyes to look over questionably. Keito shook his head.

“He also made me his best man.”

Wataru stared blankly for a moment. Slowly, his eyes glazed over with tears and he sniffed as a painful smile spread over his face. He burst out laughing as tears spilled down his cheeks. Keito could feel his own cheeks start to burn as tears built in his own eyes. 

What more could they do but laugh? Knowing that they had wasted years pining after a man who couldn’t even be self aware enough to realize the effect he had on them. And here they were, the butt of an unintentional joke he had made with the best intentions. It hurt like salt in the wound, but the real pain came from the knowledge that he didn’t — would likely never — even realize that they had been hurt in the first place.

Keito sniffed and wiped his eyes impatiently, making sure to concentrate on the road ahead of them. Wataru was still laughing, and Keito couldn’t help it when a chorus of chuckles also escaped his chest at the ridiculousness of it.

“What a stupid... what a stupid, naïve man,” Keito choked out. The first tear slipped from his right eye, trailing down his cheek to his chin. It seemed that once they started, they couldn’t be stopped and soon his cheeks were wet and red. He must have looked awful, but when he looked over, Wataru didn’t look much better. He was still laughing maniacally, mascara smudged around his eyes as tears streamed down his face.

“Shit!” Wataru coughed out between bouts of sobbing laughter. “My chest hurts so much — It is as if I have been stabbed like dear Juliet by my own foolishness, Keito. I just... I want to scream, Keito.”

And in that moment of maddened solidarity, Keito simply smiled as he reached over and flipped the switch to lower the passenger-side window.

“So do it then,” he said, a giddy and painful feeling bubbling from his chest as he did so. Wataru grinned at him, before leaning his head out the window. The wind on the highway was near-deafening, and his hair streamed out like a whimsical banner beside them. And he leaned out further still and took a deep breath, more tears spilling from his eyes as he squeezed them shut.

“YOU’RE THE WORST! TENSHOUIN EICHI!”

Keito let out a hearty laugh at that, and rolled down his own window, leaning his head against the frame of the window and joining in.

“GO TO HELL, EICHI!”

He heard a sob ripped out from Wataru’s chest as he took another breath. His laughter was dissolving into ugly weeping now as he leaned out once more and cried out desperately.

“I _LOVED_ YOU.”

Keito felt as if his heart had been pierced through, hearing the heartbroken crack in Wataru’s voice. The actor collapsed back in his seat, his face blotchy and his hair wind-blown and strewn across his face, a strand stuck to his parted lips. His chest heaved as he caught his breath, and he slowly raised his hands to cover his eyes.

Tears still flowed freely down Keito’s cheeks at the sight. Now that he was coming down from that momentary adrenaline rush, he felt light-headed and nauseous. 

They sat there not saying anything once more, and Keito was glad for just how loud the wind and the road were so that he couldn’t even hear his thoughts over their surroundings. After a few more minutes, Keito finally rolled the windows back up. The silence was just as — if not more — deafening than the road outside. Fifteen minutes passed easily, broken only by their sniffling as they collected themselves.

“Have you seen her?” Wataru asked suddenly, his voice sounding more level.

Keito shrugged. “Only photos,” he admitted. He didn’t add that he had torn through Eichi’s social media the moment he had heard the news. “She’s beautiful,” he added. As if it made a difference. 

Wataru chuckled, sounding exhausted. “Even though we were his right and left hands, neither of us could reach out far enough to hold his heart, hmm?” he mused. “She must be something quite special.”

Keito snorted in response, although he knew it must be true. Eichi was a fickle creature, drawn in by shiny new things and growing tired of them in the same moment. She really must have been an exquisite person to hold his attention enough that he would even consider proposing to her. As bitter as he was in the moment, he realized he was happy. If Eichi had really found someone that special, he supposed he couldn’t be mad.

He was confident that Wataru felt the same.

Wataru started suddenly before bending forward to scramble around at the floor at his feet. Keito saw him in his peripheral, lifting an eyebrow. When Wataru resurfaced, he was holding up Keito’s phone with a look of exasperation on his face.

“Ah.” he muttered. “We passed our exit twenty minutes ago.”

“We _what?!_ ”


End file.
